BURIAL. 



ri"ht of being buried in llie fepulcliresof their fathers : and 

 ll^jfe who were guilty of felf-miirdcr, were privately depo- 

 liicd in the ground, without the accuftomed foiemnities. 



The /Ithcnlm law mentioned by iEiian, (vii. 19.) obliged 

 them to place t!ie body to the welt. This was the origuial 

 pofition i.f the Athenians, as Solon fllewed in defence of 

 his countrymen's claims to Sa'ainis ; for on opening the 

 graves in that ifland, he proved that the Athenians in it 

 were f» buried in a regular manner ; but the Megarcnfian 

 invaders at random, and jud as it happened. I.acrtius 

 (Solone) fays, the Athenians, and the fclioliall on Thucy- 

 dides, all the Greeks, lay buried toward the call ; that is, as 

 Kuhnius on jClian, (loc. cit.) properly explains it, with 

 their faces looking to the cart, and their heads to the 

 weft. This praftice among ChrilUans has been fuppofed to 

 have a reference to the general refurredion. The motive 

 for it among the Heathens has not been afllgned. 



The Athenian praftlce, however, with regard to thofe 

 who died in the defence of their country, was at once fo 

 patriotic and affcftionate, that it cannot but deferve parti- 

 cular attention. It affords an elevated idea of that poliflied 

 people. About three days before the funeral, the bones of 

 the llain were placed in a tent raifed on purpofe, fo that 

 every perfon might have an opportunity to frequent them, 

 and pay the laft tribute of a tear. All forts of odoriferous 

 herbs and flowers were ilrewed around the tent ; and each 

 man brought fome in his hand, that he might conlccrate 

 them to the manes of his favourite friend. On the fourth 

 day a coffin of cyprefs vs'as fent from every tribe, to carry 

 oft the bones of tlieir own members. After which went 

 an empty covered hearfe, in memoi-)- of thofe who could 

 not be found. The proceffion was canied on with a pecu- 

 liar decency of forrow, whilll great numbers of inhabitants, 

 both ftrangers and citizens, affilled in the train of mourners. 

 The parents of the dcceaftd attended at the fepulchre to 

 weep. No eye could refrain from tears : and the melan- 

 choly dillrefs which appeared in the faces of all aUke, fcemed 

 but a true copy of the fentiments of all. The bones were 

 accompanied in this manner to the public place of burial, 

 fituated in a plcafant foot without the city, called Cerami- 

 cuj, and committed to the ground. The monument ereded 

 to the valour of thefe citizens was adorned with pillars, tro- 

 phies, and infcriptions, fuch as were ufual about the tombs 

 of the moll honourable perfons, and the ceremony con- 

 cluded with one fpeech in praife of them all ; the main 

 fcope of which was, to animate the living with refolution, 

 by commending the courage of the dead ; to infufe a fpirit 

 of patriotifm into the minds of their fellow citizens, by 

 celebrating the principle of aftion which incites the vahant 

 to battle. (Thucyd.) 



The ccramicus was the place where the flain in battle were 

 always buried, except thofe who fell at Marathon, whofe 

 dillinguiflicd merit entitled them to a monument upon the 

 fpot. 



Among the Romans, inhumation, we find, was preferred 

 by Nunia, the Cornelian family, and Cains Maruis ; but 

 both Virgil and Ovid fptakof burning as the practice before 

 the loundation of Rome ; tlie former (A.n. xi. 20H.) in the 

 inllance of Pallas; the latter (Faft. iv. 85,3.) in that of 

 Remus. Plutarch fays, Numa forbad it in his own cafe; 

 and the law of the Twelve Tables forbad burning as well 

 as burial within the city, Tacituk (Ann. xvi. 6.) fays, 

 Poppara's corpfe was not burned aecording to the Roman 

 falhii n. It IS a mil.ipprcheiilion of Capitolinus's words to 

 fuppofe Antonin'i.s prohibited it. Macrobiiis (vii. 7.) wlio 

 Jived under Theodufiui the younger, Ipcaks of it as left 



off in his time. (See Mr. Gouijh's Sepulchral Mon. of 

 Great Britain.) 



The drapery of the dead among the Romans was the logn, 

 which was white in all cafes except in that of the poor, who had 

 it black. The magiibates and military men were wrapt in 

 their pui pie robes of honour, or logit pretcxtutit, or other 

 precious garments of various colours. Perfons of rank and 

 fortune were buried in their oflicial habits. Mark Anthony 

 gave his own robe to cover the body of Brutus. By the 

 laws of the Twelve Tables crowns were allowed to be worn 

 on thefe occafions by thole who had merited them, and 

 garlands and flowers were cad on the body as it pafied. 

 The funerals of great men were conduced at the public ex- 

 pence. But the bodies of tlie Roman flaves were thrown 

 to rot in holes dug perpendicularly, called ^a/;Va//. (Phil. 

 Tranf. N° 265.) 



Having thus traced the conformity and occafional varia. 

 tion of praiStice among the more ancient nations in the article 

 of fepulture, it may be worth while to deduce its hiftory in 

 England. 



Both cremation and fimple interment were druidical and 

 ancient Britifli falhions. The latter rite, however, was 

 obferved with the wild addition of whatever was of ufe 

 in this life, under the notion that it would be wanted 

 by the deceafed in the world below ; and in confirmation 

 of this, arms and many fingular things, of unknown ufe, 

 are to this day difcovered beneath the places of ancient 

 fepiiltuie. (Pennant's Tour in Wales, p. 381.) Barrows 

 were their oldelf tombs. Beneath fome we find urns ; 

 beneath others fl<eletons ; and in many inftances, both. 

 (Cough's Sep. Mon. I. iv. ) The kill-vaen or coffin, com- 

 poftd of rough Itones fet edgeways, at the fides and ends, 

 was another receptacle of the dead anciently ufed in Britain ; 

 (Ibid. p. xvi,) thefe are frequent in Wales; but feldoin 

 found to contain fl-celetons, or remains of bodies in them. 

 See Dr. Stnkeley's Abury (p. ij.) of one found in a barrow 

 at Rowldrich ; and another (p. 49.) fimilar, in Monkton 

 field near Abury. Two that were found in Purbcck, on 

 making a turnpike road to Corfe, had flieletons in them. 

 Of this earlier kind and date were the rude ftone cliet^s under 

 barrows in Orkney, which contained entire bodies. The 

 Tartarian barrows have abfolute ftone vaults under them. 

 ( Archsol. ii. 222.) 



The next and lafi improvement of the ftone coffin, was by 

 forming it of a fingle Hone with mallet and tool ; and this 

 Dr. Pegge afcribed to the Romans ; for he apprehended 

 that during the general prevaleiicy of the cultoms of crema- 

 tion and urn-burial among the Romans, they had not always 

 recourfe to the funeral pile, but that bodies were fometimes 

 interred whole and in their natural ftate. (Sep. Mon. I. xx.) 

 Inftances of Roman coffins of feveral pieces of ftone are 

 cited by Mr. Gough in the Sepulchral Monuments (vol. I, 

 p. xxi.); and others, (p. xxvi.) to prove that the Romans 

 ufed brick coffins, or larcophagi, in their earlieft periods. 

 In the celebrated family vault of the fieedmen of Auguftus 

 and Livia, dilco\.ered by the fide of the Appiaii way about 

 a mile out of Rome, IJ25, among a few marble fai'cophagi 

 were two of baked-earth, made to contain the body whole. 

 The Romans in Britain buried their warriors near the 

 I'itiJ/rala or military ways : and hence we may derive the 

 fnquent infcnplion of SiSTE or Aspice Viator. 



Woden enaded a law for burning the dead, which not 

 only the Saxons and the Danes, but the remote Sarmata, 

 and all the Scandinavian nations regularly obferved; and 

 lumulated t' e afhcs, with or vvthout urns, as eircumltances 

 required. Tht Danu dilliiiguiflied by this, and the different 



funeral 



